It is primarily oriented towards television series, carrying current and past episodes of series from its owners' respective television networks and other content partners. Previously it was divided into free and paid tiers, with the free service limited in the amount of content accessible by users and accessible via PC only, and a paid service with a larger library of content and accessed via Hulu applications for various mobile and connected devices. The subscription service is, in turn, divided into advertising-supported and mostly ad-free tiers. In 2016, Hulu spun out its free content into a joint venture with Yahoo! called Yahoo! View[9] and launched a live television streaming service on May 3, 2017.

The name Hulu comes from two Mandarin Chinese words, húlú (葫芦/葫蘆), "calabash; bottle gourd", and hùlù (互录/互錄), "interactive recording". The company blog explains:

In Mandarin, Hulu has two interesting meanings, each highly relevant to our mission. The primary meaning interested us because it is used in an ancient Chinese proverb that describes the Hulu as the holder of precious things. It literally translates to "gourd", and in ancient times, the Hulu was hollowed out and used to hold precious things. The secondary meaning is "interactive recording". We saw both definitions as appropriate bookends and highly relevant to the mission of Hulu.[11]

The name Hulu was chosen in late August 2007, when the website went live, with an announcement only and no content. It invited users to leave their email addresses for the upcoming beta test.[18] In October, Hulu began the private beta testing by invitation, and later allowed users to invite friends.[19] Hulu launched for public access in the United States on March 12, 2008.[7] The first product to launch was the HULU Syndication network, which was designed and developed by the NBC Universal team from New York, on October 29, 2007, followed by the Hulu.com destinations site.

Hulu began an advertising campaign during NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII with an initial ad starring Alec Baldwin titled "Alec in Huluwood".[20] The ad intended to humorously reveal "the shocking secret behind Hulu", portraying the site as being an "evil plot to destroy the world" by suggesting that Baldwin is really an alien in disguise.[21] Advertisements have since aired featuring Eliza Dushku, Seth MacFarlane, Denis Leary, and Will Arnett.

In July 2007, Providence Equity Partners, the owner of Newport Television, became one of the earliest "outside" investors by purchasing a 10 percent stake in the company for US$100 million equity investment,[22] before the company was known as "Hulu".[23] With its investment came a seat on the board of directors, where Providence was said to act as an "independent voice on the board".[23] In October 2012, Providence sold its 10 percent stake to "Hulu's media owners" and ceased participation in the board.[23]

Early in 2010, Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar said the service had made a profit in two quarters and that the company could top $100 million in revenue by summer 2010, more than its income for all of 2009. ComScore says monthly video streams reached 903 million in January 2010, over three times the figure for a year earlier,[24] and second only to YouTube.[25]

On August 16, 2010, a report revealed that Hulu was planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) which could value the company at more than $2 billion.[26][27]

On June 21, 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported that an "unsolicited offer" caused Hulu to begin "weighing whether to sell itself."[28] On October 13, 2011 however, Hulu and its owners announced that they would not sell the company, as none of the bidders offered an amount that was satisfactory to its owners.[29]

It was reported that in 2011, Hulu made $420 million. The figure was $80 million short of the predicted revenue.[30] The vacant CEO post was officially filled by former Fox Networks President Mike Hopkins on October 17, 2013.[31]

Starting August 15, 2011, viewers of content from Fox and related networks are required to authenticate paid cable or satellite service wherever Fox streams episodes, including on Hulu, to be able to watch them the morning after the first airing. Non-subscribers will see those episodes delayed a week before they are viewable.[32]

On October 28, 2011, Hulu announced that they had inked a five-year deal with The CW, giving the streaming site access to next-day content from five of the six major networks.[33]

On September 18, 2013, Hulu announced a multi-year deal with the BBC that will deliver 2,000 episodes from 144 different titles in the first 12 months.[34]

In 2015, Hulu began offering content from Showtime for an additional $8.99/month, which is cheaper than Showtime's own streaming service.

On June 16, 2016, Hulu announced a deal with the Disney-ABC Television Group for the exclusive SVOD rights to past seasons of seven Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD series, and more than 20 Disney Channel original movies.[35]

On September 18, 2016, all content from The CW was removed from Hulu, as The CW's own website and apps became the exclusive portals for streaming their shows during the current season, with Netflix becoming the exclusive streaming provider for The CW shows post-current season.[36]

As of January 2017[update], a limited amount of content from CBS's library is available on-demand, mostly limited to shows that are no longer producing new episodes.[37][38] On January 4, 2017, it was reported that a deal was reached to bring live broadcasts of CBS and several affiliated channels to Hulu's upcoming live streaming service[39] as well as to make more shows available on-demand.[40]

At an industry conference held on October 21, 2009, News Corporation Deputy Chairman Chase Carey stated that Hulu "needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business" and that it would likely start charging for at least some content by 2010.[41] Carey's comment jibes with other News Corp. heads, including Rupert Murdoch who has expressed a desire to charge for content with a number of online units.[42]

The Hulu monthly subscription service called Hulu Plus was launched in beta (preview) on June 29, 2010[43] and officially launched on November 17, 2010.[44] Like the free version of Hulu, the content available with a Hulu subscription also contains advertising. However, it offers an expanded content library including full seasons, day-after access to current season content and more episodes of shows available through the free Hulu. A Hulu subscription also provides a wider array of viewing choices. The free-access to Hulu was only available on PCs and laptops, while a Hulu subscription allows viewers to access Hulu through all Hulu-supported devices including set-top boxes, smart TVs, gaming consoles, mobile devices and more. A little more than a year after the launch of the Hulu subscription service, the number of paying subscribers reached 1.5 million.[45] In May 2016, Hulu reported it had reached 12 million subscribers.[46]

On April 29, 2015, Hulu announced to the press that they would do away with the "Plus" brand name to reduce confusion between the paid and free plans.[47]

The Wall Street Journal reported in July 2015 that Hulu was exploring an advertising-free subscription option for around $12 to $14 a month.[48] This was confirmed as going forward as of September 2, 2015, with a "No Commercials" plan priced at $11.99, $4 more than the $7.99 monthly rate for a "Limited Commercials" subscription,[49] though a few highlight network series (less than 10) would retain pre-roll and post-roll ad pods.[50]

On August 8, 2016, Hulu announced that it would end the availability of its free streaming service through its own platform, making it oriented exclusively to subscription services. In turn, the company announced a partnership with Yahoo! to move this free content, which consists primarily of recent episodes of ABC, Fox, and NBC series, to a new website known as Yahoo! View.[51][52][53]

In May 2016, Hulu announced that it planned to begin offering an over-the-topIPTV service with "live programming from broadcast and cable brands" some time in 2017.[54] In late 2016, co-owners 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company agreed to supply their channels to the streaming service, joined by Time Warner, which previously reached an agreement with Hulu.[55]

The service, marketed only as "Hulu with Live TV," which couples the live TV offerings with Hulu's existing library of television series and films, launched in beta on May 3, 2017. The $39.99-per-month service – which provides support for Xbox One, Apple TV, Chromecast, iOS and Android devices – offers live streams of more than 50 broadcast and cable-originated channels, including feeds of the five major broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW – as well as cable channels owned by Hulu co-parents NBCUniversal, 21st Century Fox and The Walt Disney Company, along with CBS Corporation, Turner Broadcasting System, Scripps Networks Interactive and A+E Networks (encompassing networks such as CNN, Food Network, Disney Channel, A&E, MSNBC and ESPN), with the Showtime OTT service available as an add-on for an extra fee. Currently, live content from the major broadcast networks is limited to owned-and-operated stations and affiliates based in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia; Hulu representatives stated that it intends to negotiate carriage agreements with independently-owned broadcasting groups to gain distribution rights to local stations from additional markets.[56][57][58][58] Features include the ability to create up of six user account profiles per a single subscription (with personalized program recommendations based on a user's favorite programs and varying simultaneous streams depending on the package), personalized sports recommendations and a cloudDVR with between 50 and 200 hours of storage depending on the level of service (the lower-tier DVR does not have ad skipping functionality).[59][60][61][62]

Viewership numbers for the site are tracked by measurement firms such as ComScore, Nielsen ratings, and Quantcast. In partnership with comScore, Hulu is the first digital company to receive multi-platform measurement at an individual level that includes co-viewing for living room devices. When factoring this in, Hulu's reach among A18-49 increases 50 percent.

However, the reliability of these metrics has been drawn into question, partly due to widely divergent estimates. For example, between May and June 2010, ComScore updated its scoring methodology and its estimates for Hulu dropped from 43.5 million unique viewers to 24 million in a single month.[63] In a comScore digital trends report in 2010, comScore's Digital Year in Review report found that Hulu was watched twice as much as viewers who watched on the websites of the five major TV networks combined.[64]

As of 2016, 69 percent of Hulu viewing takes place on regular television sets through connected devices.[65]

In November 2009, Hulu also began to establish partnerships with record labels to host music videos and concert performances on the site, including EMI in November 2009,[68] and Warner Music Group in December 2009.[69]

In early March 2010, Viacom announced that it was pulling two of the website's most popular shows, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, off Hulu.[70] The programs had been airing on Hulu since late 2008.[71] A spokesman for Viacom noted that "in the current economic model, there is not that much in it for us to continue at this time. If they can get to the point where the monetization model is better, then we may go back."[71] In February 2011, both shows were made available for streaming on Hulu again. The Daily Show was again removed from Hulu in March 2017 in order to push viewers to watch the program on Viacom and Comedy Central's apps.

From January 17, 2011 to April 24, 2014, Hulu streamed its own in-house web series The Morning After, a light-hearted pop-culture news show. It was produced by Hulu in conjunction with Jace Hall's HDFilms and stars Brian Kimmet and Ginger Gonzaga. Producing the show was a first for the company, which in the past has been primarily a content distributor.[72]

On January 16, 2012, Hulu announced that it would be airing its first original script based program, titled Battleground, which premiered in February 2012. The program aired on Hulu's free web service rather than on the subscription-based Hulu Plus. Battleground is described as a documentary-style political drama.[73]

Later that same month, Hulu announced it would air The Fashion Fund, a six-part reality series, and the winner of the show would receive $300,000 to start their career.[74]

To continue with its original programming movement, Hulu announced that there would be a total of seven original programs that were planned to air on its service: Battleground, Day in the Life, and Up to Speed were previously mentioned; and on April 19, Hulu added four more shows to its list: Don't Quit Your Daydream, Flow, The Awesomes, and We Got Next. Some of these programs began airing in 2012, while others premiered over the next few years.[75]

On May 21, 2012, Hulu announced it would be bringing Kevin Smith to its line-up of original programming. Smith hosts a movie discussion show titled Spoilers, which began airing in mid-2012.[76]

On 4 May 2016, Hulu acquired The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, as its first documentary acquisition, as part of a planned Hulu Documentary Films collection.[79] The film premiered theatrically on 15 September, before debuting on the streaming service on 17 September.[80]

On July 12, 2014, it was announced that Hulu had signed a three-year deal purchasing exclusive online streaming rights to the South Park library. Through the deal, the South Park Studios website became powered by Hulu video and featured advertising.[81] Along with this, the domain name changed from "southparkstudios.com" to "southpark.cc.com".[82][83] Previously, the show had been available on Netflix.[84] The new site launch caused some technical issues, which were resolved allowing fans to watch uncensored[85] episodes and clips. For viewers outside the US, episodes and clips still stream through the “classic” South Park player and nothing changed aside from the new site design. A handful of countries also have their own localized versions of South Park sites, with the old experience.[86]

It was announced that beginning in September 2014, following the premiere of the 18th season, only 30 select episodes will be featured for free viewing at a time on the website, with new episodes being available for an entire month starting the day following their original airings. The entire series is available for viewing on the Hulu subscription service.

On May 14, 2015, AT&T struck a deal with Hulu that would give its customers access to streaming service on both regular and premium tiers.[87] On October 22, 2016, AT&T announced a deal to buy Time Warner, who owns 10% of Hulu, for $108.7 billion.[88][89][90]

At the start of April 2014, Neon Alley, a Viz Media-owned 24/7 anime-oriented streaming service that started on October 2, 2012,[91] streaming to both US and Canadian markets (similar to Æsir Media Group LLC and Valkyrie Media Partners LLC's Anime Network, The Chernin Group and TV Tokyo's Crunchyroll and Aniplex of America's Aniplex Channel), discontinued its web network format and relaunched as a Free Video on Demand (FVOD) service streaming anime to the US market through its website or Internet-connected devices through Hulu. As a result, with Hulu being unable to stream to the Canadian market, Neon Alley stopped streaming to that market and restricted its service to the US market only. This leaves Anime Network, Crunchyroll, Daisuki and Aniplex Channel as the only anime-focused streaming services streaming to the Canadian market at the same time as the US market, though these four all continue today. On July 21, 2016, Tubi TV announced that they had commenced streaming of certain Viz titles in Canada.[92]

In July 2010, the Financial Times revealed that Hulu had been working on plans for an international launch of Hulu Plus for several months, and had identified the UK and Japan as markets where its free website and subscription model could feasibly work.[95] Hulu chief executive Jason Kilar expressed his belief that the US model could be replicated elsewhere, saying "We won't be satisfied until this is a global service."[96] Hulu's first expansion into an international market took place with the launch of a service in Japan on September 1, 2011.[97]

On February 27, 2014, Nippon Television Network Corporation (Nippon TV) acquired Hulu's Japan business. The transaction, which is subject to certain regulatory conditions, marked Nippon TV's entry into the SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) business. Through the acquisition, the Hulu service continues to offer Japanese consumers premium content, including Hollywood and Japanese films and dramas and popular television programming. Additionally, Nippon TV's popular shows and original exclusive content launched on the Hulu service in Japan, expanding its content offering.[98] Japanese users have access to a library of popular television shows such as the CSI franchise, Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break, and Ugly Betty, and as well as movies such as Armageddon, Men in Black, and Pirates of the Caribbean.[99]

Hulu is unable to launch in Canada due to the relatively small size of Canada's online advertising market[100] and because Canada's television networks already have the exclusive online streaming rights in Canada to several titles offered on Hulu, including many mainstream American television network programs.[101] The absence of Hulu in the Canadian market raised concerns by fans of the sitcom The Mindy Project when it was cancelled by Fox in the spring of 2015 and subsequently picked up by Hulu; the show's Canadian broadcaster, City, subsequently announced it would continue to air the series in Canada.[102] At present, Canadian consumers have access to several other streaming systems, including a Canadian version of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, CraveTV and Crackle, but with CraveTV streaming some programming from inaccessible-to-Canadian-viewers platforms such as Hulu.

^Although NBCUniversal is also major shareholder (30%) of Hulu, by the Federal Communications Commission, NBCUniversal and Comcast are required not to exercise any right to influence the conduct or operation of Hulu. "Neither Comcast nor C-NBCU shall exercise any right to influence the conduct or operation of Hulu, including those arising from agreements, arrangements or operation of its equity interests (e.g., board seats, voting for directors or other shareholder matters, management and veto rights, etc.) and C-NBCU shall as and from the date of this Order hold its interest in Hulu solely as an economic interest." (MO&O, 1/20/11, FCC Grants Approval of Comcast-NBCU Transaction, Comcast Corporation and NBC Universal, Federal Communications Commission)

1.
Calabash
–
The fresh fruit has a light-green smooth skin and a white flesh. Rounder varieties are called calabash gourds and they grow in a variety of shapes, they can be huge and rounded, small and bottle shaped, or slim and serpentine, more than a metre long. The gourd was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, grown not primarily for food, but for use as water containers. The bottle gourd may have carried from Africa to Asia, Europe. It has been proven to be in the New World prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and it is a commonly cultivated plant in tropical and subtropical areas of the world, now believed by some to have spread or originated from wild populations in southern Africa. Stands of L. siceraria, which may be source plants and this apparent domestication source plant produces thinner-walled fruit that, when dried, would not endure the rigors of use on long journeys as a water container. Todays gourd may owe its tough, waterproof wall to selection pressures over its history of domestication. Gourds were cultivated in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas for thousands of years before Columbus discovery of America. Historically, in Europe, Walahfrid Strabo, abbot and poet from Reichenau and advisor to the Carolingian kings and this study showed that gourds found in American archaeological finds appeared closer to Asian variants than to African ones. In February 2014, the hypothesis was revived based on a more thorough genetic study. Nowadays, bottle gourds are grown by sowing of seeds or transplanting 15- to 20-day-old seedlings. It prefers well-drained, moist, rich soil and it requires plenty of moisture in the growing season and a warm sunny position sheltered from the wind. It is cultivated in places such as in a pot. In rural areas, many houses with thatched roofs are covered with the gourd vines. Bottle gourds grow very rapidly and their stems can reach a length of 9 m in the summer, if planted under a tall tree, the vine can grow up to the top of the tree. To get more fruit, sometimes cut off the tip of the vine when it has grown to 6–8 feet long. This forces the plant to produce side branches that produce much sooner and more flowers. The male flowers have long peduncles and the females have short ones with an ovary of the shape of the fruit, sometimes, the female flowers drop off without growing into a gourd due to the failure of pollination if no bee activity occurs in the garden area

2.
Types of business entity
–
A business entity is an entity that is formed and administered as per commercial law in order to engage in business activities, charitable work, or other activities allowable. Most often, business entities are formed to sell a product or a service, there are many types of business entities defined in the legal systems of various countries. These include corporations, cooperatives, partnerships, sole traders, limited liability company, the specific rules vary by country and by state or province. Some of these types are listed below, by country, for guidance, approximate equivalents in the company law of English-speaking countries are given in most cases, ≈ public limited company ≈ Ltd. When creating or restructuring a business, the legal responsibilities will depend on the type of business entity chosen, Shoqëri komandite, ≈ limited partnership Shoqëri kolektive, ≈ general partnership S. A. ≈ plc S. R. L. ≈ Ltd. ≈ limited liability company S. C. S. ≈ limited partnership S. C. p. A, S. E. ≈ state-owned enterprise S. G. R. Inc. restricted to non-profit associations Ltd. ≈ plc. The suffix Ltd. may also be used by a company limited by guarantee. NL, A type of mining, speculative, or research company with no right to call up the issue price of shares. In Australia companies can act as a trustee for a trust, pty. company with a share capital, A company, similar to its limited company counterpart, but where the liability of the members or shareholders is not limited. Gen, ≈ cooperative Privatstiftung, ≈ private foundation Verein, ≈ nonprofit association European business entities e. U. ≈ sole trader, sole proprietorship Kapitalgesellschaften, ≈ companies AG, Incorporated, OG, ≈ general partnership KG, ≈ limited partnership GmbH & Co. KG, KG in which a GmbH is the general partner, EBVBA / SPRLU, single member Ltd. NV / SA, ≈ plc co-operative companies, CVBA / SCRL, ≈ limited liability cooperative CVOA / SCRI, ≈ GmbH k. d. ≈ limited partnership s. p. ≈ Sole proprietorship Sociedade limitada, ≈ Ltd, a private company contains the term Sendirian Berhad or Sdn. Bhd. as part of its name where as for a public company Berhad or Bhd. is used. KD / КД, ≈ limited partnership KDA / КДА, limited partnership with shares SD / СД, ≈ general partnership, ≈ Plc Ltd. ≈ plc PEEC State Company, ≈ plc State Joint Venture Company, ≈ plc Import Export Co. Ltd In Canada entities can be incorporated under federal or provincial law. Unlimited liability corporations can be formed in Alberta AULC and Nova Scotia NSULC, the word or expression Limited, Limitée, Incorporated, Incorporée, Corporation or Société par actions de régime fédéral or the corresponding abbreviation Ltd. Forms part of the name of every entity incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act, ≈ Ltd. or Plc As an exception, entities registered prior to 1985 may continue to be designated Société commerciale canadienne or by the abbreviation S. C. C

3.
English language
–
English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin. It is the most widely learned second language and a language of the United Nations, of the European Union. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch, English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries, English is an Indo-European language, and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Most closely related to English are the Frisian languages, and English, Old Saxon and its descendent Low German languages are also closely related, and sometimes Low German, English, and Frisian are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Modern English descends from Middle English, which in turn descends from Old English, particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other English languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy dialects of Ireland. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares new language features with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German and these shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor, which linguists call Proto-Germanic. Through Grimms law, the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages, English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic. The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon, in the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain and the Romans withdrew from Britain. England and English are named after the Angles, Old English was divided into four dialects, the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms and it included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩

4.
Japanese language
–
Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 125 million speakers, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. It is a member of the Japonic language family, whose relation to language groups, particularly to Korean. Little is known of the prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century recorded a few Japanese words, during the Heian period, Chinese had considerable influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old Japanese. Late Middle Japanese saw changes in features that brought it closer to the modern language, the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region in the Early Modern Japanese period. Following the end in 1853 of Japans self-imposed isolation, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, English loanwords in particular have become frequent, and Japanese words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length. Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions. Nouns have no number or gender, and there are no articles. Verbs are conjugated, primarily for tense and voice, but not person, Japanese equivalents of adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a system of honorifics with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener. Japanese has no relationship with Chinese, but it makes extensive use of Chinese characters, or kanji, in its writing system. Along with kanji, the Japanese writing system uses two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana. Latin script is used in a fashion, such as for imported acronyms. Very little is known about the Japanese of this period, Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. Through the spread of Buddhism, the Chinese writing system was imported to Japan, the earliest texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese, but they may have been meant to be read as Japanese by the kanbun method. Some of these Chinese texts show the influences of Japanese grammar, in these hybrid texts, Chinese characters are also occasionally used phonetically to represent Japanese particles. The earliest text, the Kojiki, dates to the early 8th century, the end of Old Japanese coincides with the end of the Nara period in 794

5.
Los Angeles
–
Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital

6.
California
–
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565

7.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

8.
Comcast
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Comcast Corporation is an American global telecommunications conglomerate that is the largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue. Comcast services U. S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states, the companys headquarters are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first Universal theme park outside of the U. S, Universal Studios Japan, opened in 2001, followed by Universal Studios Singapore in 2011. Few new locations are being planned or developed for future operation, Comcast also has significant holdings in digital distribution. In February 2014 the company agreed to merge with Time Warner Cable in an equity swap deal worth $45.2 billion, under the terms of the agreement Comcast was to acquire 100% of Time Warner Cable. However, on April 24,2015, Comcast terminated the agreement, Comcast has been criticized for multiple reasons, the companys customer satisfaction often ranks among the lowest in the cable industry. Critics also point out a lack of competition in the vast majority of Comcasts service area, furthermore, given Comcasts negotiating power as a large ISP, some suspect that Comcast could leverage paid peering agreements to unfairly influence end-user connection speeds. And its ownership of content production and content distribution has raised antitrust concerns. These issues, in addition to others, led to Comcast being dubbed The Worst Company in America by The Consumerist in 2010 and 2014. Despite being publicly-traded, Comcast is a business, with the Ralph J Roberts family owning 33% controlling stake. Comcast is sometimes described as a family business, Brian L. Roberts, Chairman, President, and CEO of Comcast, is the son of co-founder Ralph Roberts. Roberts owns or controls just over 1% of all Comcast shares but all of the Class B supervoting shares, legal expert Susan P. Crawford has said this gives him effective control over every step. In 2010, he was one of the highest paid executives in the United States, Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also has corporate offices in Atlanta, Detroit, Denver, and Manchester, New Hampshire. On January 3,2005, Comcast announced that it would become the tenant in the new Comcast Center in downtown Philadelphia. The 975 ft skyscraper is the tallest building in Pennsylvania, Comcast has begun construction on a second 1,121 ft skyscraper directly adjacent to the original Comcast headquarters in the summer of 2014. The company is criticized by both the media and its own staff for its less upstanding policies regarding employee relations. A2012 Reddit post written by an anonymous Comcast call center employee eager to share their experiences with the public received attention from publications including The Huffington Post. A2014 investigative series published by The Verge involved interviews with 150 of Comcasts employees and it sought to examine why the company has become so widely criticized by its customers, the media and even members of its own staff

9.
21st Century Fox
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Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. is an American multinational mass media corporation based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of two formed from the 2013 spin-off of the publishing assets of News Corporation, as founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1979. 21st Century Fox is the successor to News Corporation dealing primarily in the film. The other company, the new News Corporation, holds Murdochs print interests, 21st Century Fox was formed by the splitting of entertainment and media properties from News Corporation. In February 2012, Natalie Ravitz accepted a position to become Rupert Murdoch’s Chief of Staff at News Corporation. Plans for the split were originally announced on June 28,2012, while additional details, the move also came in the wake of a series of scandals that had damaged the reputation of the companys publishing operations in the United Kingdom. The split was structured so that the old News Corporation would change its name to 21st Century Fox and its logo was officially unveiled on May 9,2013, featuring a modernized version of the iconic Fox searchlights. However, the 21st Century Fox brand does not extend to the existing 20th Century Fox division, the formation of 21st Century Fox was officially finalized on June 28,2013. It formally began trading on the NASDAQ and Australian Securities Exchange on July 1,2013, on January 8,2014, Rupert Murdoch announced plans to delist 21st Century Foxs shares from the Australian Securities Exchange, in favor of solely trading on the NASDAQ. Its listing in Australia was a holdover from its period as News Corporation, in June 2014, 21st Century Fox made a bid to acquire Time Warner, which had similarly spun off its publishing assets, for $80 billion in a cash and stock deal. The deal, which was rejected by Time Warners board of directors in July 2014, on August 5,2014, 21st Century Fox announced it had withdrawn its bid for Time Warner. The companys stock had fallen sharply since the bid was announced, on July 25,2014, 21st Century Fox announced the sale of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland to BSkyB for $9 billion, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. Fox would use the money from the sale, along with $25 billion it received from Goldman Sachs, on September 9,2015, 21st Century Fox announced a for-profit joint venture with the National Geographic Society. 21st Century Fox holds a 73% stake in the company, on December 15,2016, 21st Century Fox reached an agreement to takeover the 61% of Sky that it did not already own. The company was valued at £18. 5bn, 21st Century Foxs operations can be broadly categorized into four major reporting segments, Cable Network Programming Television Filmed Entertainment Direct-Broadcast Satellite Television. Among the divisions of the company is Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products which licenses and markets properties worldwide on behalf of a number of 21st Century Fox assets, as of 2015, the senior vice president for government relations was Joe Welch. On its formation in 2013, Murdoch was chairman and chief officer of the company, while Chase Carey took the posts of president. Co-chairman and Co-CEO positions were created in 2014 and filled by Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch, respectively, on July 1,2015, Lachlan Murdoch was elevated to Co-Executive Chairman alongside his father and James Murdoch replaced his father as CEO

10.
The Walt Disney Company
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The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Disney was founded on October 16,1923 – by brothers Walt Disney, the company also operated under the names The Walt Disney Studio and then Walt Disney Productions. Taking on its current name in 1986, it expanded its operations and also started divisions focused upon theater, radio, music, publishing. In addition, Disney has since created corporate divisions in order to more mature content than is typically associated with its flagship family-oriented brands. The company is best known for the products of its studio, Walt Disney Studios. Disneys other three divisions are Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Disney Media Networks, and Disney Consumer Products. The company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since May 6,1991, Mickey Mouse, an early and well-known cartoon creation of the company, is a primary symbol and mascot for Disney. In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a film entitled Alices Wonderland. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Walt and Roy Disney formed Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. More animated films followed after Alice, in January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studios name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio. The distributor owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars, Disney completed 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, due to a legal loophole, when Winklers husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. After failing to take over the Disney Studio, Mintz hired away four of Disneys primary animators to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies. In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney produced films, ub Iwerks refined Disneys initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disneys first sound film Steamboat Willie, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18,1928 through Pat Powers distribution company and it was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy and The Gallopin Gaucho. Disney used Pat Powers Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forests Phonofilm system, Steamboat Willie premiered at B. S. Mosss Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disneys Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks, Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphonies series with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929

11.
Time Warner
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Time Warner Inc. is an American multinational media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is currently the third largest entertainment company in terms of revenue, after Comcast. It was also once the worlds largest media conglomerate, Time Warner was first founded in 1990 with the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications. The current company consists largely of the assets of the former Warner Communications, Time Warner currently has major operations in film and television, with a limited amount in publishing operations. Among its most popular assets are HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, CNN, DC Comics, and as of August 2016, Hulu, owning 10%. In the past, other divisions of Time Warner included Time Inc. AOL, Time Warner Cable, Warner Books and Warner Music Group, all of these operations were either sold to other investors or spun off as independent companies from 2004 to 2014. On October 22,2016, AT&T announced its intent to acquire Time Warner for $108.7 billion. A strike by the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture, Time Warner consists of three divisions, Home Box Office Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and Warner Bros. Home Box Office Inc. operates the namesake HBO premium television service as well as sister service Cinemax, hBO- and Cinemax-branded channels are currently available in over 70 countries around the world, and HBO programming is licensed to other television networks in over 150 countries. In 2012, HBO was the #1 premium pay television service in primetime television, in 2013, the network received five Golden Globes and 23 primetime Emmy Awards. HBO’s programming includes the airing of feature films, HBO Documentary Films, HBO original films, the network has developed content distribution platforms, like HBO GO and Max GO to help support and deliver programming to users via online and mobile devices. In 2011, Cinemax launched its first original series, Strike Back. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. operates international news, entertainment, animation, young adult, Turner brands include CNN, HLN, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, truTV, Turner Sports, and more. Turners brands and sub brands reach broad domestic and international audiences, in addition to television network programming, Turner manages digital sports entities, including bleacherreport. com NBA. com, PGA. com and NCAA. com. Turner Sports produces sports programming and content for the Turner Networks, Turner Sports’ television line-up includes NBA and MLB games, the NCAA Tournament Games, and the PGA Championship. Turner operates PGA. com and related properties of the PGA under agreements with the PGA. Pictures Group grossed 4.3 billion dollars at the box office

12.
Nippon TV
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Broadcasting terrestrially across Japan, the network is commonly known as Nihon Terebi, contracted to Nittere, and abbreviated as NTV or AX. July 1952, Nippon TV is granted the first TV broadcasting license in Japan, october 28,1952, Nippon Television Network Corporation is established. August 28,1953, Nippon Television signs on as Asia’s first commercial TV station with a dove spreading its wings. Japan’s first television commercial is also aired, december 1958, NTV introduces videotape recording in a one-off drama series using RCA 2-inch quad tape. December 3,1959, NTV airs Japan’s first color VTR broadcast, September 10,1960, NTV is given the right to broadcast color television. April 1,1966, Nippon News Network is formed, july 1,1966, The Beatles’ concert at the Nippon Budokan, part of their Japanese tour, was shown in color on NTV, with the viewing rate reaching 56 percent. 1967, NTV’s New York City bureau is opened, overseas news is broadcast via satellite relay from a special studio set up within NBC. October 9,1969, Matsutaro Shoriki, the founder of NTV,1972, Nippon Television Network System is formed. January 14,1973, NTV airs the live satellite relay in Japan for Elvis Presley’s show in Hawaii,1973, NTV enters into an agreement with ABC News in the U. S. for newscasts and satellite relays. 1974, NTVs London News Bureau opens, october 8 &15,1975, The classic film Gone with the Wind makes its world television premiere on NTV, about 13 months before NBC airs the film in the U. S. March 5,1979, Zoom. December 1982, Multichannel television sound broadcasting begins,1985, NTV completes its own television studio in New York City, which is later sold to CBS. October 1987, A recording of Michael Jackson’s concert at Yokohama Stadium is broadcast in Japan,1987, NTVs cable news channel, NCN, is launched. August 24,1989, Broadcasting in enhanced definition begins,1989, Completion of the Ikuta Studio). 1993, Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli, Inc. designs Nippon Televisions mascot character Nandarō to commemorate the channels 40th Anniversary, july 13,1995, Broadcasting in widescreen EDTV begins. April 1998 NCN relaunches as 24-hour news channel, NNN24, available via cable, july 2003, The internal network name changes, however NTV is still used for overseas as the same font as 日テレ. February 29,2004, Nippon TV moves its headquarters from Kojimachi to Shiodome,2011, Nittele becomes the top broadcaster in Japan, beating the previous record-holder Fuji Television. NTVs victory was propelled by high ratings of its Wednesday nightly drama Kaseifu no Mita, April 26,2012, Nippon Television Network Preparatory Corporation is founded. February 1–2,2013, NTV and NHK General TV collaborate for a two-day TV special, January 2014, English name changed from Nippon Television to Nippon TV

13.
Streaming media
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Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. A client end-user can use their player to begin to play the data file before the entire file has been transmitted. For example, in the 1930s, elevator music was among the earliest popularly available streaming media, the term streaming media can apply to media other than video and audio such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered streaming text. As of 2017, streaming is generally taken to refer to cases where a user watches digital video content or listens to audio content on a computer screen. With streaming content, the user does not have to download the digital video or digital audio file before they start to watch/listen to it. There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet, as of 2016, two popular streaming services are the video sharing website YouTube, which contains video and audio files on a huge range of topics and Netflix, which streams movies and TV shows. Live streaming refers to Internet content delivered in real-time, as events happen, Live internet streaming requires a form of source media, an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, in the early 1920s, George O. Attempts to display media on computers date back to the earliest days of computing in the mid-20th century, however, little progress was made for several decades, primarily due to the high cost and limited capabilities of computer hardware. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, consumer-grade personal computers became powerful enough to various media. These technological improvement facilitated the streaming of audio and video content to users in their homes and workplaces. The band Severe Tire Damage was the first group to live on the Internet. On June 24,1993, the band was playing a gig at Xerox PARC while elsewhere in the building, as proof of PARCs technology, the bands performance was broadcast and could be seen live in Australia and elsewhere. Microsoft Research developed a Microsoft TV application which was compiled under MS Windows Studio Suite, realNetworks was also a pioneer in the streaming media markets, when it broadcast a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners over the Internet in 1995. The first symphonic concert on the Internet took place at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, the concert was a collaboration between The Seattle Symphony and various guest musicians such as Slash, Matt Cameron, and Barrett Martin. When Word Magazine launched in 1995, they featured the first-ever streaming soundtracks on the Internet.4 in 1999, in June 1999 Apple also introduced a streaming media format in its QuickTime 4 application. It was later widely adopted on websites along with RealPlayer. In 2000 Industryview. com launched its worlds largest streaming video archive website to help promote themselves

14.
Video on demand
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IPTV technology is often used to bring video on demand to televisions and personal computers. Internet television, using the Internet, is a popular form of video on demand. VOD can also be accessed via desktop client applications such as the Apple iTunes online content store, some airlines offer VOD as in-flight entertainment to passengers through individually controlled video screens embedded in seatbacks or armrests or offered via portable media players. Some video on demand services such as Netflix use a model that requires users to pay a monthly fee to access a bundled set of content. Other services use a model, where access is free for Internet users. Downloading and streaming video on demand systems provide the user all of the features of Portable media players. Some VOD systems that store and stream programs from hard drives use a memory buffer to allow the user to fast forward. It is possible to put video servers on local area networks, streaming video servers can also serve a wider community via a WAN, in which case the responsiveness may be reduced. Download VOD services are practical to homes equipped with cable modems or DSL connections, servers for traditional cable and telco VOD services are usually placed at the cable head-end serving a particular market as well as cable hubs in larger markets. In the telco world, they are placed in either the central office, the first Video on Demand systems used tapes as the realtime source of video streams. GTE started as a trial in 1990 with AT&T providing all components, by 1992 VOD servers were supplying previously encoded digital video from disks and DRAM. In the US the 1982 anti-trust break-up of AT&T resulted in a number of telephone companies called Baby Bells. Following this the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 prohibited telephone companies from providing services within their operating regions. All of these companies and others began holding trials to setup systems for supplying Video on Demand over telephone, in November 1992 Bell Atlantic announced a VOD trial. The IBM was developing video server code-named Tiger Shark, concurrently Digital Equipment was developing a scalable video server. Bell Atlantic selected IBM and April 1993 the system became the first VOD over ADSL to be deployed outside the lab, in 1994-5 US West went on to file for VOD at several cities. 330,000 subscribers in Denver,290,000 in Minneapolis, many VOD trials were held with various combinations of server, network and set-top. Of these the primary players in the US were the companies, using DEC, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, USA Video, nCube, SGI

15.
Service (economics)
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In economics, a service is a transaction in which no physical goods is transferred from the seller to the buyer. The benefits of such a service are held to be demonstrated by the willingness to make the exchange. Public services are those that society as a whole pays for, using resources, skill, ingenuity, and experience, service providers benefit service consumers. Services can be described in terms of their key characteristics, sometimes called the Five Is of Services and they are not manufactured, transported or stocked. Services cannot be stored for a future use and they are produced and consumed simultaneously. Services are perishable in two regards, Service-relevant resources, processes and systems are assigned for delivery during a specific period in time. If the service consumer does not request and consume the service during this period, from the perspective of the service provider, this is a lost business opportunity if no other use for those resources is available. Examples, A hairdresser serves another client, an empty seat on an airplane cannot be filled after departure. When the service has been rendered to the consumer, this particular service irreversibly vanishes. Example, a passenger has been transported to the destination and the flight is over, the service provider must deliver the service at the time of service consumption. The service is not manifested in an object that is independent of the provider. The service consumer is also inseparable from service delivery, examples, The service consumer must sit in the hairdressers chair, or in the airplane seat. Correspondingly, the hairdresser or the pilot must be in the shop or plane, respectively, many services are regarded as heterogeneous and are typically modified for each service consumer or each service context. Another and more common term for this is heterogeneity, both service provider and service consumer participate in the service provision. Mass generation and delivery of services must be mastered for a provider to expand. This can be seen as a problem of service quality, both inputs and outputs to the processes involved providing services are highly variable, as are the relationships between these processes, making it difficult to maintain consistent service quality. Many services involve variable human activity, rather than a precisely determined process, the human factor is often the key success factor in service provision. Demand can vary by season, time of day, business cycle, consistency is necessary to create enduring business relationships

16.
Television production
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A television studio is an installation in which video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, a professional television studio generally has several rooms, which are kept separate for noise and practicality reasons. These rooms are connected via intercom, and personnel will be divided among these workplaces, the studio floor is the actual stage on which the actions that will be recorded and viewed take place. The on-screen talent themselves, and any guests - the subjects of the television show, a floor manager, who has overall charge of the studio area stage management, and who relays timing and other information from the television director. One or more camera operators who operate the video cameras. Master control is the hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations. Master control is distinct from a PCR in television studios where the such as switching from camera to camera are coordinated. A transmission control room is smaller in size and is a scaled-down version of centralcasting. The master control room houses equipment that is too noisy or runs too hot for the control room. It also makes sure that coax cable and other wire lengths and installation requirements keep within manageable lengths and this can include the actual circuitry and connections between The master control room in a US television station is the place where the on-air signal is controlled. The term studio usually refers to a place where a local program is originated. If the program is broadcast live, the signal goes from the PCR to MCR, a television studio usually has other rooms with no technical requirements beyond broadcast reference monitors and studio monitors for audio. Among them are, one or more make-up and changing rooms a reception area for crew, talent, and visitors, commonly called the green room

17.
Web syndication
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Web syndication is a form of syndication in which content is made available from one website to other sites. Most commonly, websites are available to provide either summaries or full renditions of a websites recently added content. The term may also describe other kinds of content licensing for reuse, Web syndication involves a website providing content to an arbitrary number of subscribing websites that redistribute it. For the subscribing sites, syndication is a way of adding greater depth and immediacy of information to their pages. For the providing site, syndication increases exposure and this generates new traffic for the providing site—making syndication an easy and relatively cheap, or even free, form of advertisement. Content syndication has become a strategy for link building, as search engine optimization has become an increasingly important topic among website owners. Links embedded within the content are typically optimized around anchor terms that will point an optimized link back to the website that the content author is trying to promote. These links tell the algorithms of the engines that the website being linked to is an authority for the keyword that is being used as the anchor text. However the recent rollout of Google Pandas algorithm may not reflect this authority in its SERP rankings based on quality scores generated by the sites linking to the authority, although the format could be anything transported over HTTP, such as HTML or JavaScript, it is more commonly XML. Web syndication formats include RSS and Atom, Syndication first arose in earlier media such as print, radio, and television, allowing content creators to reach a wider audience. In the case of radio, the United States Federal government proposed a syndicate in 1924 so that the countrys executives could quickly and efficiently reach the entire population, in the case of television, it is often said that Syndication is where the real money is. Additionally, syndication accounts for the bulk of TV programming, one predecessor of web syndication is the Meta Content Framework, developed in 1996 by Ramanathan V. Guha and others in Apple Computers Advanced Technology Group. Today, millions of online publishers, including newspapers, commercial websites, and blogs, distribute their news headlines, product offers, there are different structures of partnership agreements. One such structure is licensing content, in which distribution partners pay a fee to the content creators for the right to publish the content, another structure is ad-supported content, in which publishers share revenues derived from advertising on syndicated content with that contents producer. A third structure is free, or barter syndication, in which no currency changes hands between publishers and content producers and this requires the content producers to generate revenue from another source, such as embedded advertising or subscriptions. Alternatively, they could distribute content without remuneration, typically, those who create and distribute content for free are promotional entities, vanity publishers, or government entities. Types of content syndicated include RSS or Atom Feeds and full content, with RSS feeds, headlines, summaries, and sometimes a modified version of the original full content is displayed on users feed readers. With full content, the entire content—which might be text, audio, video, there are two methods for selecting distribution partners

18.
Revenue
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In accounting, revenue is the income that a business has from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. Revenue is also referred to as sales or turnover, some companies receive revenue from interest, royalties, or other fees. Revenue may refer to income in general, or it may refer to the amount, in a monetary unit, received during a period of time, as in Last year. Profits or net income generally imply total revenue minus total expenses in a given period, in accounting, revenue is often referred to as the top line due to its position on the income statement at the very top. This is to be contrasted with the line which denotes net income. For non-profit organizations, annual revenue may be referred to as gross receipts, in general usage, revenue is income received by an organization in the form of cash or cash equivalents. Sales revenue or revenues is income received from selling goods or services over a period of time, tax revenue is income that a government receives from taxpayers. In more formal usage, revenue is a calculation or estimation of periodic income based on a standard accounting practice or the rules established by a government or government agency. Two common accounting methods, cash basis accounting and accrual basis accounting, corporations that offer shares for sale to the public are usually required by law to report revenue based on generally accepted accounting principles or International Financial Reporting Standards. In a double-entry bookkeeping system, revenue accounts are general ledger accounts that are summarized periodically under the heading Revenue or Revenues on an income statement, Revenue account names describe the type of revenue, such as Repair service revenue, Rent revenue earned or Sales. Money income from activities that are ordinary for a corporation, company, partnership. For some businesses, such as manufacturing and/or grocery, most revenue is from the sale of goods, service businesses such as law firms and barber shops receive most of their revenue from rendering services. Lending businesses such as car rentals and banks receive most of their revenue from fees, Revenues from a businesss primary activities are reported as sales, sales revenue or net sales. This includes product returns and discounts for early payment of invoices, most businesses also have revenue that is incidental to the businesss primary activities, such as interest earned on deposits in a demand account. This is included in revenue but not included in net sales, Sales revenue does not include sales tax collected by the business. Other revenue is revenue from peripheral operations, for example, a company that manufactures and sells automobiles would record the revenue from the sale of an automobile as regular revenue. The combination of all the revenue generating systems of a business is called its revenue model, Revenue is a crucial part of financial statement analysis. The company’s performance is measured to the extent to which its asset inflows compare with its asset outflows, net income is the result of this equation, but revenue typically enjoys equal attention during a standard earnings call

19.
Slogan
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The Oxford Dictionary of English defines a slogan as a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising. A slogan usually has the attributes of being memorable, very concise and these attributes are necessary in a slogan, as it is only a short phrase. Therefore, it is necessary for slogans to be memorable, as well as concise in what the organisation or brand is trying to say, the word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic and Irish sluagh-ghairm. Slogans vary from the written and the visual to the chanted and their simple rhetorical nature usually leaves little room for detail and a chanted slogan may serve more as social expression of unified purpose than as communication to an intended audience. George E. Shankels research states that, English-speaking people began using the term by 1704, the term at that time meant the distinctive note, phrase or cry of any person or body of persons. Slogans were common throughout the European continent during the Middle Ages, crimmins research suggests that brands are an extremely valuable corporate asset, and can make up a lot of a businesss total value. With this in mind, if we take into consideration Kellers research and these include, name, logo and slogan. Brands names and logos both can be changed by the way the receiver interprets them, therefore, the slogan has a large job in portraying the brand. Therefore, the slogan should create a sense of likability in order for the name to be likable. Dass, Kumar, Kohli, & Thomas research suggests there are certain factors that make up the likability of a slogan. The clarity of the message the brand is trying to encode within the slogan, the slogan emphasizes the benefit of the product or service it is portraying. The creativity of a slogan is another factor that had an effect on the likability of a slogan. Lastly, leaving the name out of the slogan will have a positive effect on the likability of the brand itself. The original usage refers to the usage as a clan motto among Highland clans, marketing slogans are often called taglines in the United States or straplines in the United Kingdom. Europeans use the terms baselines, signatures, claims or pay-offs, sloganeering is a mostly derogatory term for activity which degrades discourse to the level of slogans. Slogans are used to convey a message about the product, service or cause that it is representing and it can have a musical tone to it or written as a song. Slogans are often used to capture the attention of the audience it is trying to reach, if the slogan is used for commercial purposes, often it is written to be memorable/catchy in order for a consumer to associate the slogan with the product it is representing. A slogan is part of the aspect that helps create an image for the product

20.
Alexa Internet
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Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based company that provides commercial web traffic data and analytics. It is an owned subsidiary of Amazon. com. Founded as an independent company in 1996, Alexa was acquired by Amazon in 1999 and its toolbar collects data on browsing behavior and transmits them to the Alexa website, where they are stored and analyzed. This is the basis for the web traffic reporting. According to its website, Alexa provides traffic data, global rankings, as of 2015, its website has been visited by over 6.5 million people monthly. Alexa Internet was founded in April 1996 by American web entrepreneurs Brewster Kahle, Alexa initially offered a toolbar that gave Internet users suggestions on where to go next, based on the traffic patterns of its user community. The company also offered context for each site visited, to whom it was registered, how many pages it had, how other sites pointed to it. Alexas operations grew to include archiving of web pages as they are crawled and this database served as the basis for the creation of the Internet Archive accessible through the Wayback Machine. In 1998, the company donated a copy of the archive, Alexa continues to supply the Internet Archive with Web crawls. In 1999, as the company moved away from its vision of providing an intelligent search engine. Alexa began a partnership with Google in early 2002, and with the web directory DMOZ in January 2003, in May 2006, replaced Google with Bing as a provider of search results. In December 2006, Amazon released Alexa Image Search, built in-house, it was the first major application built on the companys Web platform. In December 2005, Alexa opened its extensive search index and Web-crawling facilities to third-party programs through a set of Web services. These could be used, for instance, to construct vertical search engines that could run on Alexas own servers or elsewhere. In May 2007, Alexa changed their API to limit comparisons to three websites, reduce the size of embedded graphs in Flash, and add mandatory embedded BritePic advertisements. In April 2007, the company filed a lawsuit, Alexa v. Hornbaker, in the lawsuit, Alexa alleged that Ron Hornbaker was stealing traffic graphs for profit, and that the primary purpose of his site was to display graphs that were generated by Alexas servers. Hornbaker removed the term Alexa from his name on March 19,2007. Thereafter, Alexa became a purely analytics-focused company, on March 31,2009, Alexa launched a major website redesign

21.
Online advertising
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Consumers view online advertising as an unwanted distraction with few benefits and have increasingly turned to ad blocking for a variety of reasons. It includes email marketing, search marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising. In 2011, Internet advertising revenues in the United States surpassed those of cable television, in 2013, Internet advertising revenues in the United States totaled $42.8 billion, a 17% increase over the $36.57 billion in revenues in 2012. U. S. internet ad revenue hit a high of $20.1 billion for the first half of 2013. Online advertising is used across virtually all industry sectors. Many common online advertising practices are controversial and increasingly subject to regulation, Online ad revenues may not adequately replace other publishers revenue streams. Declining ad revenue has led publishers to hide their content behind paywalls. In early days of the Internet, online advertising was mostly prohibited, for example, two of the predecessor networks to the Internet, ARPANET and NSFNet, had acceptable use policies that banned network use for commercial activities by for-profit institutions. The NSFNet began phasing out its commercial use ban in 1991, the first widely publicized example of online advertising was conducted via electronic mail. On 3 May 1978, a marketer from DEC, Gary Thuerk, sent an email to most of the ARPANETs American west coast users, despite the prevailing acceptable use policies, electronic mail marketing rapidly expanded and eventually became known as spam. The first known large-scale non-commercial spam message was sent on 18 January 1994 by an Andrews University system administrator, by cross-posting a religious message to all USENET newsgroups. Four months later, Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, partners in a law firm, Canter and Siegels Green Card USENET spam raised the profile of online advertising, stimulating widespread interest in advertising via both Usenet and traditional email. More recently, spam has evolved into an industrial operation. Online banner advertising began in the early 1990s as page owners sought additional revenue streams to support their content, commercial online service Prodigy displayed banners at the bottom of the screen to promote Sears products. The first clickable web ad was sold by Global Network Navigator in 1993 to a Silicon Valley law firm, in 1994, web banner advertising became mainstream when HotWired, the online component of Wired Magazine, sold banner ads to AT&T and other companies. The first AT&T ad on HotWired had a 44% click-through rate, and instead of directing clickers to AT&Ts website, goTo. com created the first search advertising keyword auction in 1998. More recently, companies have sought to merge their advertising messages into editorial content or valuable services, examples include Red Bulls Red Bull Media House streaming Felix Baumgartners jump from space online, Coca-Colas online magazines, and Nikes free applications for performance tracking. Advertisers are also embracing social media and mobile advertising, mobile ad spending has grown 90% each year from 2010 to 2013, display advertising conveys its advertising message visually using text, logos, animations, videos, photographs, or other graphics

22.
Registered user
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A registered user is a user of a website, program, or other system who has previously registered. Registered users normally provide some sort of credentials to the system in order to prove their identity, systems intended for use by the general public often allow any user to register simply by selecting a register or sign up function and providing these credentials for the first time. Registered users may be granted privileges beyond those granted to unregistered users, user registration and login enables a system to personalize itself. For example, a website might display a welcome banner with the users name, a system could even sell information it has gathered on its users to third parties for advertising or other purposes. Depending on the nature of the system, a user might not have any way of knowing for certain exactly what information is stored, how it is used, the subject of systems transparency in this regard is one of ongoing debate. Registration may also be seen as an annoyance or hindrance, especially if it is not inherently necessary or important or if the system repeatedly prompts users to register. A systems registration process might also be time-consuming or require that the user provide information they might be reluctant to, such as a home address or social security number

23.
Fox Entertainment Group
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The company is wholly owned and controlled by the American media conglomerate 21st Century Fox, which is owned and chaired by Rupert Murdoch, since the company acquired all the stock of Fox. The transaction was completed on March 12,2005, the division was part of the renamed 21st Century Fox after it had spun off its publishing divisions into the newly formed New News Corporation in 2013 as part of a corporate re-organization. It is named after William Fox, born Wilhelm Fuchs, who created the original Fox Film Corporation, jim Gianopulos is currently the chairman of Fox Entertainment Group, a position he shared with Tom Rothman until 2012. These stations would become the foundation of the Fox television network. Not long after the Metromedia deal was made, Murdoch purchased Daviss shares and News Corp assumed full control of the film studio, which was then placed within Fox Entertainment Group. In 1995, Saban entered into a joint venture with the Fox childrens television network to form Fox Kids Worldwide, in 1997 it was renamed Fox Family Worldwide. On July 23,2001, it was announced that Fox Family Worldwide would be sold to Disney from News Corporation and businessperson Haim Saban, on October 24,2001, the sale was completed. In September 2013, Fox Networks Group divided FX into two channels, with the new channel FXX leaning toward comedy shows and targeting younger viewers

24.
NBCUniversal
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NBCUniversal is an American multinational media conglomerate. It has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including terrestrial, via the Universal Parks & Resorts division, the company is also the third-largest operator of amusement parks in the world. NBC Universal was formed on May 12,2004 by the merger of General Electrics National Broadcasting Company with Vivendis Vivendi Universal Entertainment, as of March 19,2013, it is wholly owned by Comcast who bought GEs ownership stake. NBC and Universal Television had a long-standing partnership dating back to 1950 and this partnership continued throughout a number of name changes and changes of ownership. NBC Universal Television has its roots in a series of expansions undertaken by NBC. In the late 1980s, NBC began pursuing a strategy of diversification, NBC also had partial ownership of several regional sports channels and other cable channels such as American Movie Classics and Court TV. In 1995, NBC began operating NBC Desktop Video, a news service that delivered live video to personal computers. The following year, NBC announced an agreement with Microsoft to create an all-news cable television channel, a separate joint venture with Microsoft included establishing a news website, MSNBC. com. In 1998, NBC partnered with Dow Jones & Co, the two companies combined their financial news channels outside the US. The new networks included NBC Europe, CNBC Europe, NBC Asia, CNBC Asia, NBC Africa, in 1999, NBC took a 32% stake in the Paxson group, operator of PAX TV. Five years later, NBC decided to sell its interest in PAX TV and end its relationship with PAX owner, in 2001, NBC acquired the US Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo, which included the bilingual Mun2 Television. That same year NBC acquired the cable channel Bravo, the sale and resulting merger formed NBC Universal. The new company was 80% owned by GE, and 20% owned by Vivendi, Universal Music Group was not included in the deal and is not part of NBC Universal. On August 2,2004, the divisions of NBC. NBC Studios series bought into the company include the NBC dramas Las Vegas, Crossing Jordan, Universal Network Television bought the Law & Order franchise and The District—in fact, Universal Network Television had co-produced American Dreams with NBC before the merger. Entertainment shows produced by the new group include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Last Call with Carson Daly, and Saturday Night Live. The formation of NBC Universal saw the establishment of NBC Universal Cable, which oversees the distribution, marketing, NBC Universal Cable also manages the companys investments in The Weather Channel and TiVo. The cable division also used to operate NBC Weather Plus until 2008 and it also owned a 50% stake in Canal+ and also owned a 15% stake in A+E Networks until 2012

25.
Turner Broadcasting System
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The company was founded in 1970, and merged with Time Warner on October 10,1996. It now operates as a unit of Time Warner. The companys assets include CNN, HLN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, the companys current chairman and CEO is John K. Martin. Across Interstate 75/85 from the Techwood campus is the home of Turners WTBS superstation. By careful programming acquisitions, Turner guided the station to success, during December 1976, WTCG originated the superstation concept, transmitting via satellite to cable systems. On December 17,1976 at 1,00 pm, WTCG Channel 17s signal was beamed via satellite to its four cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska, Newport News, Virginia, Troy, Alabama, and Newton, Kansas. All four cable systems started receiving the 1948 Dana Andrews - Cesar Romero film Deep Waters already in progress, the movie had started 30 minutes earlier. WTCG went from being a television station to a major TV network that every one of the 24,000 households outside of the 675,000 in Atlanta was receiving coast-to-coast. WTCG became a so-called Superstation and created a precedent of todays basic cable television, HBO had gone to satellite transmissions to distribute its signal nationally in 1975, but that was a service cable subscribers were made to pay extra to receive. Ted Turners innovation signaled the start of the cable revolution. In 1979, the changed its name to Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. On June 1,1980, CNN was launched at 17,00 EST becoming the first 24-hour news cable channel, in 1981, Turner Broadcasting System acquired Brut Productions from Faberge Inc. In 1984, Turner initiated Cable Music Channel, his competition for WASECs MTV, the channel was short-lived, but helped influence the original format of VH1. In 1986, after an attempt to acquire CBS, Turner purchased the film studio MGM/UA Entertainment Co. from Kirk Kerkorian for $1.5 billion. Following the acquisition, Turner had a debt and sold parts of the acquisition. MGM/UA Entertainment was sold back to Kirk Kerkorian, the MGM/UA Studio lot in Culver City was sold to Lorimar/Telepictures. Turner kept MGMs pre-May 1986 and pre-merger film and TV library Turner Entertainment Co. was founded on August 4,1986, on October 3,1988, the company launched Turner Network Television. Turner expanded its presence in movie production and distribution, first with the 1991 purchase of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, on December 22,1993, Turner acquired Castle Rock Entertainment

26.
Yahoo!
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Yahoo Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Yahoo was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 2,1995, Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early internet era in the 1990s. Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, Google Employee number 20 and it is globally known for its Web portal, search engine Yahoo. Search, and related services, including Yahoo, answers, advertising, online mapping, video sharing, fantasy sports, and its social media website. It is one of the most popular sites in the United States, according to news sources, roughly 700 million people visit Yahoo websites every month. Yahoo itself claims it attracts more than half a billion consumers every month in more than 30 languages, in January 1994 Yang and Filo were electrical engineering graduate students at Stanford University, when they created a website named Jerry and Davids guide to the World Wide Web. The site was a directory of websites, organized in a hierarchy. In March 1994, Jerry and Davids Guide to the World Wide Web was renamed Yahoo, the yahoo. com domain was created on January 18,1995. The word yahoo is a backronym for Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle or Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle, the term hierarchical described how the Yahoo database was arranged in layers of subcategories. However, Filo and Yang insist they mainly selected the name because they liked the definition of a yahoo, rude, unsophisticated. This meaning derives from the Yahoo race of beings from Gullivers Travels. Yahoo grew rapidly throughout the 1990s, like many search engines and web directories, Yahoo added a web portal. By 1998, Yahoo was the most popular starting point for web users and it also made many high-profile acquisitions. Its stock price skyrocketed during the bubble, Yahoo stocks closing at an all-time high of $118.75 a share on January 3,2000. However, after the bubble burst, it reached a post-bubble low of $8.11 on September 26,2001. Yahoo began using Google for search in 2000, over the next four years, it developed its own search technologies, which it began using in 2004. In response to Googles Gmail, Yahoo began to offer unlimited email storage in 2007, the company struggled through 2008, with several large layoffs. In February 2008, Microsoft Corporation made a bid to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion

27.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon

28.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times

29.
AOL
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AOL Inc. is an American multinational mass media corporation based in New York, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications. AOL was one of the pioneers of the Internet in the mid-1990s. It originally provided a service to millions of Americans, as well as providing a web portal, e-mail, instant messaging. At the height of its popularity, it purchased the media conglomerate Time Warner in the largest merger in U. S. history, AOL rapidly declined thereafter, partly due to the decline of dial-up to broadband. AOL was eventually spun off from Time Warner in 2009, with Tim Armstrong appointed the new CEO, under his leadership, the company invested in media brands and advertising technologies. On June 23,2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications for $4.4 billion, in the following months, AOL also made a deal with Microsoft and acquired several tech properties, including Millennial Media and Kanvas to bolster their mobile ad-tech capabilities. AOL began in 1983, as a venture called Control Video Corporation. Its sole product was a service called GameLine for the Atari 2600 video game console. Subscribers bought a modem from the company for US$49.95, GameLine permitted subscribers to temporarily download games and keep track of high scores, at a cost of US$1 per game. The telephone disconnected and the game would remain in GameLines Master Module and playable until the user turned off the console or downloaded another game. In January 1983, Steve Case was hired as a consultant for Control Video on the recommendation of his brother. In May 1983, Jim Kimsey became a consultant for Control Video. Kimsey was brought in by his West Point friend Frank Caufield, in early 1985, von Meister left the company. The technical team consisted of Marc Seriff, Tom Ralston, Ray Heinrich, Steve Trus, Ken Huntsman, Janet Hunter, Dave Brown, Craig Dykstra, Doug Coward, in 1987, Case was promoted again to executive vice-president. Kimsey soon began to groom Case to take over the role of CEO, Kimsey changed the companys strategy, and in 1985, launched a dedicated online service for Commodore 64 and 128 computers, originally called Quantum Link. The Quantum Link software was based on software licensed from PlayNet, the service was different from other online services as it used the computing power of the Commodore 64 and the Apple II rather than just a dumb terminal. It passed tokens back and forth and provided a fixed price service tailored for home users, in May 1988, Quantum and Apple launched AppleLink Personal Edition for Apple II and Macintosh computers. In August 1988, Quantum launched PC Link, a service for IBM-compatible PCs developed in a joint venture with the Tandy Corporation, after the company parted ways with Apple in October 1989, Quantum changed the services name to America Online

30.
Facebook
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Facebook is an American for-profit corporation and an online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park, California. Facebook gradually added support for students at other universities. Since 2006, anyone age 13 and older has been allowed to become a user of Facebook, though variations exist in the minimum age requirement. The Facebook name comes from the face book directories often given to United States university students, Facebook may be accessed by a large range of desktops, laptops, tablet computers, and smartphones over the Internet and mobile networks. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile indicating their name, occupation, schools attended and so on. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups organized by workplace, school, hobbies or other topics, in groups, editors can pin posts to top. Additionally, users can complain about or block unpleasant people, because of the large volume of data that users submit to the service, Facebook has come under scrutiny for its privacy policies. Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements which appear onscreen, Facebook, Inc. held its initial public offering in February 2012, and began selling stock to the public three months later, reaching an original peak market capitalization of $104 billion. On July 13,2015, Facebook became the fastest company in the Standard & Poors 500 Index to reach a market cap of $250 billion, Facebook has more than 1.86 billion monthly active users as of December 31,2016. As of April 2016, Facebook was the most popular social networking site in the world, Facebook classifies users from the ages of 13 to 18 as minors and therefore sets their profiles to share content with friends only. Zuckerberg wrote a program called Facemash on October 28,2003 while attending Harvard University as a sophomore, to accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into protected areas of Harvards computer network and copied private dormitory ID images. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online, the site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers, but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final exam. He uploaded 500 Augustan images to a website, each of which was featured with a corresponding comments section and he shared the site with his classmates, and people started sharing notes. The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004 and he said that he was inspired by an editorial about the Facemash incident in The Harvard Crimson. On February 4,2004, Zuckerberg launched Thefacebook, originally located at thefacebook. com. com and they claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product. The three complained to The Harvard Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation and they later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling in 2008 for 1.2 million shares. Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College, within the first month, eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website

31.
MSN
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MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24,1995, the same release date as Windows 95. Along with Windows 95s release, Microsoft debuted The Microsoft Network, at the same time, the company launched a new web portal named Microsoft Internet Start and set it as the first default home page of Internet Explorer, its original web browser. In 1998, Microsoft renamed and moved this web portal to the domain name MSN. com, the current website and suite of apps offered by MSN was first introduced by Microsoft in 2014 as part of a complete redesign and relaunch. MSN is based in the United States and offers international versions of its portal for dozens of countries around the world, from 1995 to 1998, the MSN. com domain was used by Microsoft primarily to promote MSN as an online service and Internet service provider. At the time, MSN. com also offered a start page and an Internet tutorial. Microsofts original news website, msnbc. com, which launched in 1996, was tied closely to the Internet Start portal. The new website put MSN in direct competition with such as Yahoo. Because the new format opened up MSNs content to the world for free, MSN. com became the successor to the default Internet Explorer start page, as all of the previous Microsoft Internet Start website was merged with MSN. com. Some of the websites that Microsoft launched during that era remain active in some form today. Other websites since divested by Microsoft include the travel website Expedia, the online magazine Slate, in the late 1990s, Microsoft collaborated with many other service providers, as well as other Microsoft departments, to expand the range of MSNs services. Some examples include MSN adCenter, MSN Shopping, and the Encarta encyclopedia with various levels of access to information, since then, MSN. com has remained a popular destination, launching many new services and content sites. MSNs Hotmail and Messenger services were promoted from the MSN. com portal, MSN Search, a dedicated search engine, launched in 1999. The single sign-in service for Microsofts online services, Microsoft Passport, the MSN. com portal and related group of services under the MSN umbrella remained largely the same in the early 2000s. The sports section of the MSN portal was ESPN. com from 2001 to 2004, and FoxSports. com from 2004 to 2014. MSN had a partnership with msnbc. com for news content from 1996 until 2012, when Microsoft sold its remaining stake in msnbc. com to NBCUniversal. Since then, MSN has launched MSN News, a news operation. MSN released a preview of a home page and logo on November 3,2009. It was originally expected to be available to over 100 million U. S. customers by early 2010

32.
Myspace
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Myspace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. It is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Myspace was acquired by News Corporation in July 2005 for $580 million. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world, since then, the number of Myspace users has declined steadily in spite of several redesigns. As of March 2017, Myspace was ranked 3,178 by total Web traffic, Myspace had a significant influence on pop culture and music and created a gaming platform that launched the successes of Zynga and RockYou, among others. Despite an overall decline, in 2015 Myspace still had 50.6 million unique visitors and has a pool of nearly 1 billion active and inactive registered users. In June 2009, Myspace employed approximately 1,600 employees, in June 2011, Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake jointly purchased the company for approximately $35 million. In August 2003, several employees with Friendster accounts saw potential in its social networking features. The group decided to mimic the popular features of the website. Within 10 days, the first version of Myspace was ready for launch, a complete infrastructure of finance, human resources, technical expertise, bandwidth, and server capacity was available for the site. The project was overseen by Brad Greenspan, who managed Chris DeWolfe, Josh Berman, Tom Anderson, the first Myspace users were eUniverse employees. The company held contests to see who could sign up the most users, eUniverse used its 20 million users and e-mail subscribers to breathe life into Myspace, and move it to the head of the pack of social networking websites. A key architect was tech expert Toan Nguyen who helped stabilize the Myspace platform when Brad Greenspan asked him to join the team. Despite over ten times the number of developers, Friendster, which was developed in JavaServer Pages, could not keep up with the speed of development of Myspace and cfm. The MySpace. com domain was owned by YourZ. com, Inc. intended until 2002 for use as an online data storage. By 2004, it was transitioned from a storage service to a social networking site. A friend, who worked in the data storage business. DeWolfe suggested they charge a fee for the basic Myspace service, Brad Greenspan nixed the idea, believing that keeping Myspace free was necessary to make it a successful community. Myspace quickly gained popularity among teenage and young adult social groups, in February 2005, DeWolfe held talks with Mark Zuckerberg over acquiring Facebook but DeWolfe rejected Zuckerbergs $75 million asking price

33.
Software release life cycle
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Usage of the alpha/beta test terminology originated at IBM. As long ago as the 1950s, IBM used similar terminology for their hardware development, a test was the verification of a new product before public announcement. B test was the verification before releasing the product to be manufactured, C test was the final test before general availability of the product. Martin Belsky, a manager on some of IBMs earlier software projects claimed to have invented the terminology, IBM dropped the alpha/beta terminology during the 1960s, but by then it had received fairly wide notice. The usage of beta test to refer to testing done by customers was not done in IBM, rather, IBM used the term field test. Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the project before formal testing. These activities can include requirements analysis, software design, software development, in typical open source development, there are several types of pre-alpha versions. Milestone versions include specific sets of functions and are released as soon as the functionality is complete, the alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing. In this phase, developers generally test the software using white-box techniques, additional validation is then performed using black-box or gray-box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black-box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release, alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. Alpha software may not contain all of the features that are planned for the final version, in general, external availability of alpha software is uncommon in proprietary software, while open source software often has publicly available alpha versions. The alpha phase usually ends with a freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete, Beta, named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the software development phase following alpha. Software in the stage is also known as betaware. Beta phase generally begins when the software is complete but likely to contain a number of known or unknown bugs. Software in the phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing, the process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it. Beta version software is useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization

34.
Super Bowl XLIII
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The Steelers defeated the Cardinals by the score of 27–23. The game was played on February 1,2009, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, with this victory, the Steelers became the first team to win six Super Bowls. The win was also Pittsburghs second Super Bowl victory in four years, the Cardinals entered the game seeking their first NFL title since 1947, the longest championship drought in the league. Pittsburgh jumped to a 17–7 halftime lead, aided by linebacker James Harrisons Super Bowl-record 100-yard interception return for a touchdown, but the Steelers marched 78 yards to score on wide receiver Santonio Holmes 6-yard game-winning touchdown catch with 35 seconds left. Holmes, who caught nine passes for 131 yards and a touchdown and he became the sixth wide receiver to win the award, half of whom are Steelers. Tampa was selected for the site on May 25,2005. Super Bowl XLIII was the second Super Bowl at this venue, eight yards of playing field are shown, alluding to the games status as the championship of the 2008 NFL season. In a tradition starting with the Super Bowl XL logo, two stars — one red, representing the AFC, and one blue, representing the NFC — are flanked on either side of the Super Bowl XLIII logo. The tagline for Super Bowl XLIII as well as the 2008 NFL season is Believe In Now, the seeds of Super Bowl XLIII can be traced back to the end of the 2006 season. After winning Super Bowl XL in 2005, the Pittsburgh Steelers fell to an 8–8 record the following year, at the end of 2006, Bill Cowher ended his 15-year tenure as their head coach, leaving with a 149–90–1 regular season record and a 12–9 record in the playoffs. Both offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and assistant head coach Russ Grimm were widely considered the front-runners to succeed Cowher in Pittsburgh, in the 60 years since their last national championship, the team had won just one playoff game. The Steelers then passed over Grimm and instead hired Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin, of historical note the game matched up two franchises previously merged into a single team, Card-Pitt, for the 1944 season in response to the depleted rosters during World War II. It was the third Super Bowl in history to feature two pre-expansion era teams, joining Super Bowl XIV and Super Bowl XLI and this game also featured the oldest franchise in the NFC playing the oldest franchise in the AFC. The Cardinals were founded in 1898 as an independent amateur team in Chicago, the Steelers, founded in 1933 as the Pittsburgh Pirates, are one of only three AFC teams that pre-date the 1960 NFL season. Warner started for the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV and Super Bowl XXXVI, winning the first and losing the second one, under Tomlins first season as head coach, the Steelers improved to a 10–6 record in 2007. The Steelers excelled on defense and led the NFL in fewest points and yards allowed per game, up front, their line was anchored by defensive end Aaron Smith, who recorded 60 tackles and six sacks. Behind him two of the Steelers starting linebackers ranked among the top-ten sack leaders in the NFL, LaMarr Woodley, Pro Bowl linebacker James Farrior was also a big contributor, recording 3.5 sacks and leading the team with 133 tackles. The Steelers secondary was led by Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu, for the fifth year in a row the Steelers offense was led by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who finished the season with 3,301 passing yards and 17 touchdowns, with 15 interceptions

35.
Alec Baldwin
–
Alexander Rae Alec Baldwin III is an American actor, writer, producer, and comedian. A member of the Baldwin family, he is the oldest of the four Baldwin brothers, Baldwin first gained recognition appearing on seasons 6 and 7 of the CBS television drama Knots Landing, in the role of Joshua Rush. His performance in the 2003 romantic drama The Cooler garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Baldwin co-starred in Mission, Impossible – Rogue Nation, the fifth installment of the Mission, Impossible series, released on July 31,2015. He is also a columnist for The Huffington Post, since 2016, he has been the host of Match Game. He has three brothers, Daniel, William, and Stephen, who also became actors. He also has two sisters, Beth and Jane, Alec and his siblings were raised as Roman Catholics. They are of English, Irish, Scottish, French-Canadian, Baldwin attended Alfred G. Berner High School in Massapequa and played football there under Coach Bob Reifsnyder. In New York City, Baldwin worked as a busboy at the disco Studio 54, from 1976 to 1979, he attended George Washington University, afterward transferring to New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts. There he studied with, among others, Geoffrey Horne and Mira Rostova at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Later, Baldwin made his Broadway debut in 1986 in a revival of Joe Ortons Loot alongside Zoë Wanamaker, Željko Ivanek, Joseph Maher, and Charles Keating. This production closed after three months, Baldwin also received an Emmy nomination for the 1995 television version of the production, in which both he and Jessica Lange reprised their roles, alongside John Goodman and Diane Lane. In 1998, Baldwin played the role in Macbeth at The Public Theater alongside Angela Bassett. In 2004, Baldwin starred in a revival of Twentieth Century with Anne Heche, on June 9,2005, he appeared in a concert version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific at Carnegie Hall. He starred as Luther Billis, alongside Reba McEntire as Nellie, the production was taped and telecast by PBS on April 26,2006. In 2006, Baldwin made theater news in Roundabout Theatre Companys Off-Broadway revival of Joe Ortons Entertaining Mr. Sloane. In 2010, Baldwin starred opposite Sam Underwood in an acclaimed revival of Peter Shaffers Equus, directed by Tony Walton at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Baldwin has returned to Broadway as Harold in Orphans, the show, which opened April 18,2013, was also to have starred Shia LaBeouf as Treat, but LaBoeuf left the production in rehearsals and was replaced by Ben Foster. Baldwins first acting role was as Billy Aldrich in the NBC daytime soap opera The Doctors from 1980 to 1982, in fall 1983, he starred in the short-lived television series Cutter to Houston. He went on to appear as the brother of Valene Ewing, in 1986, Baldwin starred in Dress Gray, a four-hour made-for-television miniseries, as an honest cadet sergeant who tries to solve the mystery of a murdered gay classmate

36.
Eliza Dushku
–
Eliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress and model known for her television roles, including starring as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse. She is also known for her roles in films, including True Lies, The New Guy, Bring It On, Wrong Turn and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dushkus father is an Albanian from the city of Korçë and her mother is of Danish and English descent. Dushku has three brothers, and was raised Mormon and she attended Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and graduated from Watertown High School. Dushku came to the attention of casting agents when she was 10 and she was chosen in a five-month search for the lead role of Alice in the film That Night. In 1993, Dushku landed a role as Pearl alongside Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in This Boys Life, the following year, she played the teenage daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies. She had parts as Paul Reisers daughter in Bye Bye Love, as Cindy Johnson in Race the Sun, and roles in the television movie Journey and the short film Fishing with George. After reading the script, Dushku rushed to a local Claires to purchase dark makeup and other accessories for the part. When she began her work on series, Dushku was still a minor. After completing high school, Dushku returned to acting with the role of Faith Lehane on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, repentant and rededicated, Faith returned as a heroine in other episodes of Angel and in the last five episodes of Buffy. Dushku was inundated with piles of fan mail from legions of prisoners and she said, Ive been getting fan mail from maximum security penitentiaries and death row. What are the authorities thinking of in playing a show with young girls to Death Row inmates. They write everything – disgusting things that you dont even want to know about. And they send me pictures – Oh, heres a picture of me before I was incarcerated. – and theres some guy sat on the sofa with a bottle of beer and a moustache, in 2000, Dushku starred in the hit cheerleader comedy Bring It On. She followed that up with Soul Survivors, reuniting her with Race the Sun co-star Casey Affleck, in 2001, she appeared in The New Guy with DJ Qualls and City by the Sea with Robert De Niro and James Franco. The latter film garnered attention from a adult audience and several good reviews. The same year, Kevin Smith invited Dushku to be a part of Jay, in 2003, Dushku starred in the horror film Wrong Turn and The Kiss, an independent comedy-drama. Starting that same year, she starred in a new Fox supernatural drama, Tru Calling, Dushku turned down a role in a spin-off of Buffy The Vampire Slayer which would have been about Faith

37.
Seth MacFarlane
–
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American television producer, filmmaker, actor, and singer, working primarily in animation and comedy, as well as live-action and other genres. MacFarlane is the creator of the TV series Family Guy, co-creator of the TV series American Dad. and he also wrote, directed, and starred in the films Ted, its sequel Ted 2, and A Million Ways to Die in the West. MacFarlane is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, recruited to Hollywood, he was an animator and writer for Hanna-Barbera for several television series, including Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, Dexters Laboratory, I Am Weasel, and Larry & Steve. As an actor, he has made guest appearances on series, such as Gilmore Girls, The War at Home, in 2008, he created his own YouTube series titled Seth MacFarlanes Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy. He won several awards for his work on Family Guy, including two Primetime Emmy Awards and an Annie Award, in 2009, he won the Webby Award for Film & Video Person of the Year. He occasionally speaks at universities and colleges throughout the United States, MacFarlanes first feature-length comedy film, Ted, features his voice acting and performance-capture as the titular anthropomorphic teddy bear and became the highest-grossing original R-rated comedy. As a singer MacFarlane has performed at venues, including Carnegie Hall. MacFarlane has released three albums, in the same vein of his musical idol Frank Sinatra, beginning with Music Is Better Than Words in 2011. He wrote the lyrics for the Academy Award-nominated song Everybody Needs a Best Friend for Ted, MacFarlane served as executive producer of Cosmos, A Spacetime Odyssey, an update of the 1980s Carl Sagan–hosted Cosmos series, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. MacFarlane was instrumental in providing funding for the series, as well as securing support for it from other entertainment executives. MacFarlane was born and raised in Kent, Connecticut and his parents, Ronald Milton MacFarlane and Ann Perry, were born in Newburyport, Massachusetts. His sister is voice actress Rachael Ann MacFarlane and he is of English, Scottish, and Irish descent, with roots in New England going back to the 1600s, including descent from Mayflower passenger William Brewster. MacFarlanes parents met in 1970, when both lived and worked in Boston, Massachusetts, and married later that year. The couple moved to Kent in 1972, where Ann began working in the Admissions Office at South Kent School and she later worked in the College Guidance and Admissions Offices at the Kent School, a selective college preparatory school, where Ronald was a teacher. During his childhood, MacFarlane developed an interest in illustration and began drawing cartoon characters Fred Flintstone and Woody Woodpecker, as early as two years old. By the age of five, MacFarlane knew that he would want to pursue a career in animation, in one anecdote from the time, MacFarlane said in an October 2011 interview that as a child he was always weirdly fascinated by the Communion ceremony. He created a strip with a character kneeling at the altar taking Communion, the paper printed it and he got an angry letter from the local priest, it led to sort of a little mini-controversy in the town. MacFarlane received his high school diploma in 1991 from the Kent School, while there, he continued experimenting with animation, and his parents gave him an 8 mm camera

38.
Denis Leary
–
Denis Colin Leary is an American actor, writer, producer, singer and comedian. Leary was the star and co-creator of Rescue Me, which ended its seventh, from 2015 to 2016, Leary wrote and starred in the comedy series, Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll on FX. Denis Colin Leary was born on August 18,1957, in Worcester, Massachusetts and his mother, Nora, was a maid, and his father, John Leary, was an auto mechanic. Being the son of Irish parents, Leary is a citizen of both the United States and Ireland, through marriage, Leary is a third cousin of talk show host, Conan OBrien. He attended Saint Peters High School, in Worcester and graduated from Emerson College, at Emerson, he met fellow comic Mario Cantone, whom to this day Leary considers his closest friend. At the school, he founded the Emerson Comedy Workshop, a troupe that continues on-campus today, after graduating with the Emerson Class of 1981, he took a job at the school teaching comedy writing classes and maintained the job for five years. He wrote and appeared on a comedy series, The Late, Late Show, hosted by his friend, Lenny Clarke. He appeared in skits on the MTV game show Remote Control, playing characters as Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, the brother of co-host Colin Quinn. Leary earned fame when he ranted about R. E. M. in an early 1990s MTV sketch, several other commercials for MTV quickly followed, in which Leary would rant at high speeds about a variety of topics, playing off the then-popular and growing alternative scene. One of these serves as an introduction to the video of Shamrocks. He released two records of his comedy, No Cure for Cancer and Lock n Load. In late 2004, he released the EP Merry F#%$in Christmas, which included a mix of new music, previously unreleased recordings and it was voted #1 in an Australian youth radio poll. The song was used as part of the Holsten Pils series of ads in the UK, in which Leary was participating, the single was a minor hit there, peaking at No.58 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1996. Leary has appeared in more than 40 films, including, The Sandlot as Scotts stepfather Bill, the Matchmaker, The Ref, Draft Day, Suicide Kings, Dawg, Wag the Dog, Demolition Man, Judgment Night, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Operation Dumbo Drop. He had a part in Oliver Stones Natural Born Killers that was eventually cut. Leary was offered the role of Dignam in The Departed but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with Rescue Me, as a Boston Red Sox fan, he narrated the official 2004 World Series film. As an ice hockey fan, Leary hosted the National Hockey League video NHLs Greatest Goals, in 2003, he was the subject of the Comedy Central Roast of Denis Leary. Leary did the TV voiceover for MLB 2K8 advertisements, where he used his trademark rant style in baseball terms and he has also appeared in commercials for Hulu and DirecTVs NFL Sunday Ticket package

Calabash
–
The fresh fruit has a light-green smooth skin and a white flesh. Rounder varieties are called calabash gourds and they grow in a variety of shapes, they can be huge and rounded, small and bottle shaped, or slim and serpentine, more than a metre long. The gourd was one of the first cultivated plants in the world, grown not primarily for food, but fo

1.
Calabash Lagenaria siceraria

2.
Bottle gourd seeds

3.
Lagenaria siceraria var peregrina MHNT

4.
Traditional Opo squash grown in garden in An Giang, Vietnam

Types of business entity
–
A business entity is an entity that is formed and administered as per commercial law in order to engage in business activities, charitable work, or other activities allowable. Most often, business entities are formed to sell a product or a service, there are many types of business entities defined in the legal systems of various countries. These in

English language
–
English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language i

1.
The opening to the Old English epic poem Beowulf, handwritten in half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."

2.
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language

3.
Title page of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales c.1400

Japanese language
–
Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 125 million speakers, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. It is a member of the Japonic language family, whose relation to language groups, particularly to Korean. Little is known of the prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century record

1.
A page from Nihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan), the second oldest book of classical Japanese history.

2.
Map of Japanese dialects and Japonic languages

3.
Two pages from a 12th-century emaki scroll of The Tale of Genji from the 11th century.

4.
Calligraphy

Los Angeles
–
Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county

California
–
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and th

1.
A forest of redwood trees in Redwood National Park

2.
Flag

3.
Mount Shasta

4.
Aerial view of the California Central Valley

United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

1.
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764

2.
Flag

3.
The signing of the Mayflower Compact, 1620.

4.
The Declaration of Independence: the Committee of Five presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress in 1776

Comcast
–
Comcast Corporation is an American global telecommunications conglomerate that is the largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue. Comcast services U. S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states, the companys headquarters are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The first Universal theme park outside of the

1.
Comcast Center in Center City, Philadelphia, PA

2.
Comcast service van, Ypsilanti Township, Michigan

21st Century Fox
–
Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. is an American multinational mass media corporation based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of two formed from the 2013 spin-off of the publishing assets of News Corporation, as founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1979. 21st Century Fox is the successor to News Corporation dealing primarily in the film. The othe

1.
1211 Avenue of the Americas: Current headquarters of 21st Century Fox

The Walt Disney Company
–
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It is the second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue. Disney was founded on October 16,1923 – by brothers Walt Disney, the company also ope

1.
The Walt Disney Studios (corporate headquarters).

2.
The building in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz which was home to the studio from 1923 to 1926

3.
Original poster for Flowers and Trees (1932).

4.
The original Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios.

Time Warner
–
Time Warner Inc. is an American multinational media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is currently the third largest entertainment company in terms of revenue, after Comcast. It was also once the worlds largest media conglomerate, Time Warner was first founded in 1990 with the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communica

1.
View of the Time Warner Center taken from Central Park West

Nippon TV
–
Broadcasting terrestrially across Japan, the network is commonly known as Nihon Terebi, contracted to Nittere, and abbreviated as NTV or AX. July 1952, Nippon TV is granted the first TV broadcasting license in Japan, october 28,1952, Nippon Television Network Corporation is established. August 28,1953, Nippon Television signs on as Asia’s first com

1.
Nippon Television Tower headquarters in Minato, Tokyo

2.
Nippon Television Holdings, Inc.

Streaming media
–
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. A client end-user can use their player to begin to play the data file before the entire file has been transmitted. For example, in the 1930s, elevator music was among the earliest popularly available streaming media, the te

1.
A live stream from a camera pointed at a fish tank, Schou FishCam

2.
A typical webcast, streaming in an embedded media player

Video on demand
–
IPTV technology is often used to bring video on demand to televisions and personal computers. Internet television, using the Internet, is a popular form of video on demand. VOD can also be accessed via desktop client applications such as the Apple iTunes online content store, some airlines offer VOD as in-flight entertainment to passengers through

1.
The BBC iPlayer interface on the Freesat digital service

Service (economics)
–
In economics, a service is a transaction in which no physical goods is transferred from the seller to the buyer. The benefits of such a service are held to be demonstrated by the willingness to make the exchange. Public services are those that society as a whole pays for, using resources, skill, ingenuity, and experience, service providers benefit

1.
A bellhop is an example of a service occupation.

Television production
–
A television studio is an installation in which video productions take place, either for the recording of live television to video tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for post-production. The design of a studio is similar to, and derived from, movie studios, a professional television studio generally has several rooms, which are kept separa

1.
During a production of Kripo Live in Studio 1 of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) (2005).

2.
A make-up room at the Theatre Royal in Wexford, Ireland (October 2002).

Web syndication
–
Web syndication is a form of syndication in which content is made available from one website to other sites. Most commonly, websites are available to provide either summaries or full renditions of a websites recently added content. The term may also describe other kinds of content licensing for reuse, Web syndication involves a website providing co

1.
Common web feed icon

Revenue
–
In accounting, revenue is the income that a business has from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. Revenue is also referred to as sales or turnover, some companies receive revenue from interest, royalties, or other fees. Revenue may refer to income in general, or it may refer to the amount, in a

1.
Accounting

Slogan
–
The Oxford Dictionary of English defines a slogan as a short and striking or memorable phrase used in advertising. A slogan usually has the attributes of being memorable, very concise and these attributes are necessary in a slogan, as it is only a short phrase. Therefore, it is necessary for slogans to be memorable, as well as concise in what the o

1.
In 1995, FDA's assertion of authority to regulate tobacco drew heavy opposition from the tobacco community, which erupted into lawsuits and slogans urging "Keep FDA Off the Farm."

Alexa Internet
–
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based company that provides commercial web traffic data and analytics. It is an owned subsidiary of Amazon. com. Founded as an independent company in 1996, Alexa was acquired by Amazon in 1999 and its toolbar collects data on browsing behavior and transmits them to the Alexa website, where they are stored and an

1.
Alexa Internet, Inc.

2.
2014 screenshot of Alexa.com home page

Online advertising
–
Consumers view online advertising as an unwanted distraction with few benefits and have increasingly turned to ad blocking for a variety of reasons. It includes email marketing, search marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising. In 2011, Internet advertising revenues in the United States surpassed those of cable television

1.
Online advertising serving process - simple publisher case

Registered user
–
A registered user is a user of a website, program, or other system who has previously registered. Registered users normally provide some sort of credentials to the system in order to prove their identity, systems intended for use by the general public often allow any user to register simply by selecting a register or sign up function and providing

1.
An Opte Project visualization of routing paths through a portion of the Internet

Fox Entertainment Group
–
The company is wholly owned and controlled by the American media conglomerate 21st Century Fox, which is owned and chaired by Rupert Murdoch, since the company acquired all the stock of Fox. The transaction was completed on March 12,2005, the division was part of the renamed 21st Century Fox after it had spun off its publishing divisions into the n

1.
Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.

NBCUniversal
–
NBCUniversal is an American multinational media conglomerate. It has a significant presence in broadcasting through a portfolio of domestic and international properties, including terrestrial, via the Universal Parks & Resorts division, the company is also the third-largest operator of amusement parks in the world. NBC Universal was formed on May 1

1.
NBCUniversal headquarters at Comcast Building

2.
NBC Universal Chicago headquarters (NBC Tower).

3.
10 Universal City Plaza in Universal City, California.

4.
The same building in 2015 after the Comcast NBC merger. Notice the wordings on the top of the building changed.

Turner Broadcasting System
–
The company was founded in 1970, and merged with Time Warner on October 10,1996. It now operates as a unit of Time Warner. The companys assets include CNN, HLN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, the companys current chairman and CEO is John K. Martin. Across Interstate 75/85 from the Techwood campus is the home of Turners WTBS super

1.
Aerial view of the CNN Center, which houses the headquarters of Turner Broadcasting System

Yahoo!
–
Yahoo Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Yahoo was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 2,1995, Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early internet era in the 1990s. Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, Google Employee number 20 and it is gl

1.
Jerry Yang and David Filo, the founders of Yahoo

2.
Protest against the mass surveillance by the NSA

3.
Yahoo's Bangalore office

Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referr

1.
The Golden Hall and five-storey pagoda of Hōryū-ji, among the oldest wooden buildings in the world, National Treasures, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

3.
Samurai warriors face Mongols, during the Mongol invasions of Japan. The Kamikaze, two storms, are said to have saved Japan from Mongol fleets.

4.
Samurai could kill a commoner for the slightest insult and were widely feared by the Japanese population. Edo period, 1798

Standard Chinese
–
Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic lang

1.
A poster outside of high school in Yangzhou urges people to speak Putonghua

2.
Zhongguo Guanhua (中国官话/中國官話), or Medii Regni Communis Loquela ("Middle Kingdom's Common Speech"), used on the frontispiece of an early Chinese grammar published by Étienne Fourmont (with Arcadio Huang) in 1742

AOL
–
AOL Inc. is an American multinational mass media corporation based in New York, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications. AOL was one of the pioneers of the Internet in the mid-1990s. It originally provided a service to millions of Americans, as well as providing a web portal, e-mail, instant messaging. At the height of its popularity, it purchased t

1.
AOL Desktop running on Windows XP

2.
AOL Inc. Logo

3.
Directors

Facebook
–
Facebook is an American for-profit corporation and an online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park, California. Facebook gradually added support for students at other universities. Since 2006, anyone age 13 and older has been allowed to become a user of Facebook, though variations exist in the minimum age requirement. The F

4.
Billboard on the Thomson Reuters building welcomes Facebook to NASDAQ, 2012

MSN
–
MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24,1995, the same release date as Windows 95. Along with Windows 95s release, Microsoft debuted The Microsoft Network, at the same time, the company launched a new web portal named Microsoft Internet

1.
The current MSN home page design, introduced in 2014.

Myspace
–
Myspace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. It is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Myspace was acquired by News Corporation in July 2005 for $580 million. From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site in

Software release life cycle
–
Usage of the alpha/beta test terminology originated at IBM. As long ago as the 1950s, IBM used similar terminology for their hardware development, a test was the verification of a new product before public announcement. B test was the verification before releasing the product to be manufactured, C test was the final test before general availability

1.
Software release life cycle map

Super Bowl XLIII
–
The Steelers defeated the Cardinals by the score of 27–23. The game was played on February 1,2009, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, with this victory, the Steelers became the first team to win six Super Bowls. The win was also Pittsburghs second Super Bowl victory in four years, the Cardinals entered the game seeking their first NFL title since 1

3.
Three cheerleaders waving Terrible Towels at a Pittsburgh rally prior to the game.

4.
Fans wave as the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds fly over the stadium during the pregame ceremony.

Alec Baldwin
–
Alexander Rae Alec Baldwin III is an American actor, writer, producer, and comedian. A member of the Baldwin family, he is the oldest of the four Baldwin brothers, Baldwin first gained recognition appearing on seasons 6 and 7 of the CBS television drama Knots Landing, in the role of Joshua Rush. His performance in the 2003 romantic drama The Cooler

1.
Baldwin in 2012

Eliza Dushku
–
Eliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress and model known for her television roles, including starring as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse. She is also known for her roles in films, including True Lies, The New Guy, Bring It On, Wrong Turn and Jay and Silent

1.
Dushku at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Struck by Lightning

2.
Dushku at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con

3.
Dushku at 2009 Comic Con

4.
Dushku at Fan Expo Canada in Toronto, 2011

Seth MacFarlane
–
Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American television producer, filmmaker, actor, and singer, working primarily in animation and comedy, as well as live-action and other genres. MacFarlane is the creator of the TV series Family Guy, co-creator of the TV series American Dad. and he also wrote, directed, and starred in the films Ted, its sequel Ted 2, a

1.
MacFarlane at the San Diego Comic-Con International, July 2012

2.
MacFarlane at a RISD reception on June 1, 2007

3.
MacFarlane being interviewed at the Fox Fall Eco-Casino Party in Hollywood on September 8, 2008.

4.
Frank Sinatra significantly influenced MacFarlane and his music.

Denis Leary
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Denis Colin Leary is an American actor, writer, producer, singer and comedian. Leary was the star and co-creator of Rescue Me, which ended its seventh, from 2015 to 2016, Leary wrote and starred in the comedy series, Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll on FX. Denis Colin Leary was born on August 18,1957, in Worcester, Massachusetts and his mother, Nora, was a maid

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The CW's original pre-launch logo. At the network's first upfront presentation on May 18, 2006, the provisional blue-and-white rectangle logo that was used during the network's formation announcement in January was replaced by a green-and-white, curved-letter insignia that drew comparisons to the logo used by CNN, another company with Time Warner ownership interest.

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Disney Channel's headquarters in Burbank, California as it appeared in the 2000s (the logo was later removed instead of being replaced with the 2002-era logo).

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Original logo used from April 18, 1983 to April 5, 1997; the wordmark (at bottom), based on The Walt Disney Company's 1986-2010 corporate logo, replaced a generic all-capital text logo in 1986. The "Mickey Mouse TV" served as the de facto primary logo, with the wordmark being used intermittently on-air.

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Oxygen's former logo. The Oh! element was used from 2002 to June 8, 2008, with the word Oxygen displayed in Times New Roman type since the channel's launch; until 2004, the entire word was in smaller case letters.